There's Always More

There are a number of things I love about my soon to be son-in-law – one being our ability to banter back and forth about spiritual matters. One such occasion arose this week while waiting on our nachos and quesadillas at a local Mexican restaurant. The topic at hand was this: when does the Holy Spirit take up resident in a person; AND, is that filling complete or is it a process.

Some say that the Spirit enters the believer immediately upon reception of Christ as Savior. Others would argue that He doesn’t come until what’s known as a believer’s baptism. Some would agree that He enters the believer at conversion but comes with more fullness at a later date. And then there are those of the mindset that the Spirit indwells even the non-believer, constantly wooing that one to Christ. I don’t think the subject could be labeled a spine issue, but rather more a matter of the rib. My husband and my daughter are of the mindset, “What does it matter?” Todd and I think more in terms of, “It’s fun to think about it.” Which of the two has more faith, I dare not question.

My opinion is that the Holy Spirit is given without measure upon our receiving of Christ, and that all measurements are set up on our end of the equation determined by the degree to which we submit ourselves to Him. However, my question still remains: even given without measure, can the presence of the Lord still increase in us?

Isaiah may have tapped into this when he wrote, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple.” The Hebrew word for “filled” is written in such a way here that it could actually be read “was filling” the temple. In other words, God’s presence kept coming.

Bill Johnson makes a profound statement to me in his book, “Face to Face with God.” He writes, “Those who seem to have the greatest measure of God’s presence on their lives tend to be the hungriest for more. There’s always more to hunger for!” The truth is that we might not agree on when or how much when it comes to the Holy Spirit; but one thing is for certain. There’s always more: more to hunger for; more of His presence to experience! The real question is this. Do we just live in the mediocrity of the theory? Or do we do something about it and live in the intended experiece? It’s really just a matter of choice.